Cagle’s COMM 142 Review Questions

• Prepare to write a 3-5 paragraph essay in response to each question.

• Each question should be looked at as a springboard from which you can demonstrate what you have learned in this course.

What is rhetorical criticism?

What is the essential methodology of neo-classical or traditional criticism?

Explain these critical standards:Rhetorical effect.Rhetorical artistry.Ethicality or morality.Fittingness or propriety.Rhetorical competency.Truth.

What is the critical rationale for textual criticism?

What is cultural criticism? How is it different from traditional criticism?

Explain:The only standard of correctness The only standard of correctness

that exists relative to rhetorical that exists relative to rhetorical

criticism is that the critic makes a criticism is that the critic makes a

sound case for any judgments sound case for any judgments

rendered about the rhetorical act.rendered about the rhetorical act.

What did Wichelns mean?Literary criticism is concerned with evaluating the wisdom, beauty, and truth contained in great works of fiction, while rhetorical criticism is devoted to assessing the persuasive effect of situated oratory.

What did Blair mean?The object which criticism proposes is, to distinguish what is beautiful and what is faulty in every performance; from particular instances to ascend to general principles; and so to form rules or conclusions concerning the several kinds of beauty in works of genius.

What did Parrish mean?

The effect of a speech is difficult to assess, but the quality can be determined separately from its actual impact on an audience.

What did Wrage mean?

Rhetorical criticism can make important contributions to social and intellectual history.

What did Thonssen & Baird mean?“Insightful synthesis integrates the many parts and makes the seemingly discrete components a whole piece.”

Explain this approach to criticism:

“common standards of accuracy, beauty, or effectiveness are used to assess the manifest features of messages”

Explain this approach to criticism:

“attempt to probe the implicit features of messages and understand the ways in which thosefeatures govern human experience”

In historical research, what are important tests of evidence?

Explain the relationship between history and criticism in rhetorical criticism.

In cultural criticism, what purpose does the identification of myths, fantasy themes, and values serve?

How would you criticize the arguments in a speech?

Why would a critic analyze metaphors in understanding a speech?

How and why would a critic look at a speaker’s use of language and condensation symbols in a speech?

Traditional criticism is characterized by objectivity, relying on aesthetics or effectiveness as critical standards. Contrast ideological criticism as a methodology.

How should a film be criticized?

When a critic does a rhetorical criticism, who is the audience?